COCKLE. 



CARYOPHYLLE.E. Agrostemma Coronaria. 



is seems to be the plant recognised as the cockle of Job 

 xxxi. 40. It is an Oriental plant, ranging in its growth 

 from the cornfields of the Caucasus to those of the Nile. 

 We have specimens gathered from among the cereals of 

 Samaria; and many have noticed it in various fields 

 throughout Palestine. It is of a smaller size, but of more bril 

 liant flower, than the English and American varieties; yet the 



~ j 



same family appears everywhere among the wheat, maize, 

 barley, and other grains. Its name &quot;coronaria&quot; refers not to 

 anything in the nature or appearance of the flower, but to the 

 fact that among the ancient Greeks and Italians it was the 

 flower used at feasts and woven into the chaplets with which 

 guests were crowned. 



The Hebrew word translated &quot;wild grapes&quot; in Isaiah v. 2, 4 

 is but the plural form of the word here translated &quot;cockle&quot; in 

 Job; and, though the same word has been at various times 

 supposed to be the &quot;blackberry-bush,&quot; or &quot;noxious weeds,&quot; by 

 some, the &quot; night-shade&quot; by Dr. Mason Good, and by Gesenius 

 the &quot; wolf-bane,&quot; or aconitum napelhis, yet the use of the word 

 by Job, &quot;Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead 

 of barley,&quot; evidently refers us to the cockle, or agrostemma 

 coronaria, which even at present is the most troublesome weed 



